A federal judge has sentenced former Virgin Islands Department of Sports, Parks and Recreation Commissioner Calvert White to five years in prison for his role in a bribery and kickback scheme involving a federally funded government contract.
White was sentenced Thursday to five years of incarceration, followed by three years of supervised release. He was also ordered to forfeit $5,000 and to self-surrender on March 2. U.S. District Judge Mark Kearney did not impose a fine.
Business owner Benjamin Hendricks, whom prosecutors described during a July trial as a “middleman, helper, aider and abettor” in the scheme, was sentenced to five years and eight months in prison, followed by three years of supervised release. Hendricks was also ordered to pay a $5,000 fine and to self-surrender on March 13.
According to evidence presented at trial, White solicited and accepted a bribe from former government contractor David Whitaker through Hendricks, who acted as an intermediary. The scheme began as early as December 2023 and continued until June 2024, when the defendants were approached by authorities. In exchange for the bribe, White agreed to assist Whitaker in securing a Sports, Parks and Recreation contract budgeted at $1.6 million. Prosecutors said White provided confidential bid information, took official actions to encourage the award of the contract to Whitaker’s company, Mon Ethos Pro Support, and used his position to influence the procurement process. Hendricks facilitated payments between the two men.
A jury found White and Hendricks guilty of honest services wire fraud and bribery concerning a federally funded program.
Judge Kearney said during Thursday’s sentencing hearings that the sentences were based on factors including each defendant’s role in the scheme and their criminal histories. Under U.S. Sentencing Commission guidelines, White initially faced a recommended sentence of 151 to 188 months in prison, while Hendricks faced 108 to 135 months. Those ranges were reduced to 97 to 121 months for White and 70 to 87 months for Hendricks after new information emerged about the financial benefit derived from the contract.
The reduction followed an email sent to a Federal Bureau of Investigation special agent by Curtis Jones, who assumed ownership of Mon Ethos after Whitaker pleaded guilty to wire fraud and bribery in 2024. Jones reportedly stated that fulfilling the $1.43 million DSPR security camera contract would have required approximately $600,000 in hardware costs and another $600,000 in labor and related expenses.
“It was a bad bid price,” Jones wrote, according to court records. Based on those figures, the net benefit to Whitaker was calculated at less than $250,000, lowering the sentencing recommendation.
Judge Kearney ultimately imposed sentences below even the revised guideline ranges, citing mitigating factors presented during the hearings.
White also addressed the court, apologizing to his family and the community. He referenced his years of work with young Virgin Islanders and described public service as his calling.
“This is not the vision that I had,” White said. “This is not the role model that I wish to set for those children.”
While acknowledging White’s expressions of remorse and community outreach, Judge Kearney pointed to recorded conversations made by Whitaker in which White appeared to demonstrate awareness of the illegality of his actions.
“What is so concerning about this crime is … how cavalier this came to you,” Kearney said. “That is, how easy it was for you to do this.”
White was ordered to forfeit $5,000, matching the amount Whitaker initially transferred through Hendricks into one of White’s bank accounts as part of the scheme.
During Hendricks’s sentencing, Judge Kearney noted that White was the primary driver of the corruption, steering the surveillance camera contract to Whitaker in exchange for a $16,000 payout, while Hendricks “went along to get along,” in part because Whitaker owed his company money. The court also considered Hendricks’s prior conviction for wire fraud in 2005, for which he served two years in prison.
“The problem with being in the middle of all this is just that,” Kearney said. “You sleep with the bedbugs….”
